Utilization… Not Easy

Even a Tech Firm Finds it Hard to Drive e-Solutions

by Doug Adams
The other day I was speaking with a colleague who is the Director of Marketing for a Tech Firm. This is a company filled with what most would consider “early adopters” and tech enthusiasts. In other words, a group of individuals who embrace broadband and e-solutions every day, in a myriad of ways.

She was struggling with a decision of when to roll out a new e-solution to her sales team. It’s an online database/prospecting tool that provides invaluable information about the company’s prospects. She knows it is a great investment… a tool that will help her sales team grow their individual account base – and drive corporate sales… but, she is hesitant.

You see, my colleague is a pragmatist. While her company is a tech firm, sales people are notoriously tech laggards… and very slow to change their routine. Getting them to change or adopt new behaviors can be tough, and right now she’s fighting the uphill battle of getting them all connected – and using – a new CRM program.

So she’s resisting the internal pressure (and the pressure from her friendly sales person) to adopt this technology right now because, in her words, “I only get one chance to launch this, and I need to get it right… otherwise no one will use it.”

Whether she realizes it or not, she’s preaching the SNG story – adoption is great… utilization is what really matters.

And so she has a plan to come as close as she can to ensuring success. She will roll out this new solution after CRM has been adopted. She will provide this prospecting tool in a month where sales opportunities are down and sales people are more open to creative ways to find opportunities. And she will assign a few champions on the sales team to communicate the benefits and convey success stories.

While regions and communities chase expanding broadband availability and bridging the digital divide, we could learn a lot from my friend… make sure you have a strategy to drive utilization. Change can be seen as scary and daunting… line up the pieces and players in a manner that is most likely to produce utilization. SNG can help. Find out how we can provide you with that plan, a roadmap for each organization in your region, and champions to show the way to realize broadband’s transformative economic impacts.